"You know why they go after those two ladies more viciously? Because they know that Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin is going to draw a lot of the women vote away from the Democratic party," Cain said. "They are scared to death of that if [Bachmann or Palin] were to run and get the nomination. They are doubly scared that a real black man may run against Barack Obama."

Cain spokeswoman Ellen Carmichael told POLITICO that Cain's race remarks had nothing to do with him challenging Obama's racial origin.

"He was referring to himself in the first person," she said. "He was saying that there could be a general election with two black men."